It’s easier to sing in Xhosa than you might think. But I’m ahead of myself.
In 2016, we visited the Crossroads township with Rev. Rachel Mash. Rev. Rachel has been very involved in starting churches, preschools, and schools (those preschoolers have to attend school somewhere!) during her ministry. Among our stops was Eluvukweni Anglican Church (“Resurrection” in Xhosa, and “Xhosa” is pronounced ‘click’-Osa)
This church is a one-story, rectangle about 40’ x 120’, with cement walls, and a sloped corrugated steel roof. On special days (e.g., Easter, Christmas) they can have upwards of 600 worshippers, about 25% of them would fit in the building.
This year, Rev. Rachel invited us to a service there. I confess this was definitely out of my comfort zone, but we screwed up our courage and said yes.
At the carpool site, we waited for another group running a bit late, but no worries because “Church starts when the people get there.” Rev. Rachel handed us a hymnal, which we realized was in Xhosa. Her over-the-shoulder comment was “just read it as if it’s Spanish.”
We took our seats in the middle of the church and soon the congregational singing started (OMG! can they sing!). All acapella. In purposeful but random harmony (and lots of lovely bass). Accompanied by drumming on pews, bongo drums, and what can only be called an air pillow held in one hand and clapped with the other.
The Mothers Union, in black skirts, white blouses, purple jackets, and plush caps, sits in the left front. The Girls Brigade are scattered around, wearing (you guessed it) black skirts, white blouses, purple sailor-collar scarves and berets. The Mizeki Men’s Guild – dressed in black suits, black shirts, black ties, and purple vests – are helping people find seats. For a township with corrugated steel shacks for homes, they truly wore their Sunday best.
The processional hymn is announced, everyone rises, a singer sings the first line of the hymn, then you join in – church has started. Young boys and girls in red cassocks are acolytes. There’s a 10-year old boy with censer (hmmm, a 10-year old swinging something flaming from a chain that puts out a lot of smoke – what could possibly go wrong?). And then there are a couple dozen other servers in various capacities. Good thing there are a lot of verses.
And Rev. Rachel was right – singing in Xhosa is a lot like singing in Spanish. Xhosa is printed phonetically, so you can pronounce the word even if you have no idea what it means. The words are stretched out across the notes so you actually have time to pronounce them (some you recognize like Yesu and Yerusaleme). As for the tune, with all the harmony going on, it’s hard to hit a wrong note! Plus, you don’t just sing – you sway, you dip, sometimes you clap – you get your whole body involved.
For some hymns, they broke out cowbells and drumsticks, and even whistles. Those songs were more enthusiastic (Greek: enthousiastikos, ‘possessed by a god’) and often meant getting up and moving around the church. After the verses are over, they just keep going, singing. . . . something. Eventually, there’s a signal – people sit, finish the verse, and quiet down. All this in a 40’ x 120’ space.
Of course, reading Xhosa for the Nicene Creed and the prayers was a whole other thing – by the time you pronounced “Hai in-ywe-ba yo-ma-me-la u-ku-vu-ma o-ko,” they were 2 lines ahead of you.
The Bible readings were in Xhosa; the Psalm was chanted in Xhosa (good luck with that!). But the Gospel (including incense! Rolling clouds of it!) was in English. Then, right on cue, the lights went out – it was the 10 AM load shedding!
End of Episode 1!
Authors: Jeanne and Randy spend some of their time in South Africa helping the Anglican and Methodist churches with their work on ECD centers, youth programs, and other priority projects for church staff.
